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#3306 - Wednesday,
October 1, 2008 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
An issue about imitation, initiation, and inspiration...
"Cast away all speech.
Our words may express it,
but cannot hold it.
The way of letters leaves no trace,
yet the teaching is revealed."
--Dogen Kigen
From the book: "The Poetry of Zen," published by
Shambhala
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9781590304259/angelinc
posted to Daily Dharma
________________________________
An anecdote in the life of Pir Vilayat
As a child of eight years old, he (Pir Vilayat) hiked up into the
Himalayas to see this holy man. The holy man looked at him and
said "Why have you come all this way, to see who you are,
yourself? I am no other than you".
Pir Vilayat said that for years that haunted him-that
question-because he thought there was an answer to it. It finally
dawned on him and he said," I did not know who I was until I
could see it in another".
posted to Allspirit Inspiration
________________________________
August 3, 2008
What is an aha moment? How does it compare to initiation?
An aha moment is a sudden stumbling into a deeper truth. Suddenly you see a connection previously unseen. Suddenly what made no sense, makes sense. An aha moment is a turnaround. Disliking someone for a certain quality and suddenly realizing you dislike yourself for that quality, is an aha moment. Not wanting to go somewhere or do something, but saying yes, going and enjoying yourself, qualifies as an aha moment. Solving a difficult problem upon waking up in the middle of the night with an answer, is an aha moment. Being shown a bigger picture that you missed seeing; realizing you were doing something incorrectly all the while, are aha moments. [...]
Aha moments are new directions. Initiations are redirections. Aha moments add to your inventory of spiritual experiences. Initiations discard a mess of spiritual experiences. Aha moments take you in many directions. Initiation takes you in a single direction. Aha moments form a rainbow. Initiation is a beam of white light. You can sell aha moments. No one really wants an initiation. Aha moments are fascinating. Initiation can be frightening, painful, and sickening, since there is often resistance to the process of initiation. Aha moments are usually pretty cool. Initiation isn’t cool. You can share an aha moment. It’s hard to talk about an initiation.
[... for more, with photos, see Jerry Katz blog.] http://nonduality.org/2008/08/03/initiation-vs-the-aha-moment/ posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle
Let your life be the poem you write. Let your heart be the portrait you paint. ~ Bonkonon ~
For the Artist at the Start of Day
May morning be astir
with the harvest of night;
Your mind quickening to the eros of a new question,
Your eyes seduced by some unintended glimpse
That cut right through the surface to a source.
May this be a
morning of innocent beginning,
When the gift within you slips clear
Of the sticky web of the personal
With its hurt and its hauntings,
And fixed fortress corners,
A Morning when you
become a pure vessel
For what wants to ascend from silence,
May your imagination
know
The grace of perfect danger,
To reach beyond
imitation,
And the wheel of repetition,
Deep into the call
of all
The unfinished and unsolved
Until the veil of
the unknown yields
And something original begins
To stir toward your senses
And grow stronger in your heart
In order to come to
birth
In a clean line of form,
That claims from time
A rhythm not yet heard,
That calls space to
A different shape.
May it be its own
force field
And dwell uniquely
Between the heart and the light
To surprise the
hungry eye
By how deftly it fits
About its secret loss.
~ John O'Donohue ~
(To Bless the Space Between Us) Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Start_of_Day.html